355 F1 clutch life question

mine lasted 1500 miles. $5000 to replace and repair.

 

i wish!! fifteen hundred miles and they wouldnt cover it under warranty. "oh ferrari doesnt cover clutches, didn't you know?"

ferrari claims i was abusive on the clutch. how? i have no idea. i have never had to replace a clutch in my life. and the ridiculous thing is i drove the car the exact same way after the new clutch and never had a problem again. i traded the car in for a regular 6-speed modena 4000 miles later.

 

Smart move!

 

Hello Max,

I really enjoy driving my 355F1 on the track.
Although I have driven quite a few manual cars on the track, IMO the F1 transmission gives you an advantage, as well as no mistakes!

I have had no problems with the transmission at all. I did replace the clutch once in it's 1st major service at 28,000 km but it was only 50% worn.

I have since just had the 2nd major sevice at 46,000 km and they did not need to change the clutch this time. Driving on the track does not hurt it, it is stop/start traffic, reversing (especially when cold) and steep driveways etc, that wear them out quickly.

Regards,
Andrew

 

42000km and running, was at 52% at 37000km. Question is, how far can you go in the SD2 readings before it's REALLY time to do a preventive clutch change. Car is having belts/tensioners done in March, is it worth doing the clutch too to save labour costs ?

 

I bought one with 12k on the clock, 4 previous owners and no history of a clutch change. I got the dealer to put a new clutch in as part of the purchase deal - he showed it to me and it had at least 50% life left. I did 5k miles in it including track training and had no probs.

Rush hour traffic will shorten the life as you use the clutch more but if it's gentle it should be OK.

Don't sit stationary with the car in 1st - no torque converter! And I was told that racing starts can burn them out in hundreds of miles.

Steve

 

I would have the clutch done while the engine is out in March.

You will then have another 40,000km+ without clutch worries.

 

Personally, I wouldn't do the clutch on a 355/348 unless you have a problem with it, as it is quite possibly the easiest "big" job on any Ferrari.

It's only a 2-3 hour job for std replacement, including removing and refitting the bumper and silencer. I also get the centre plate re-lined in some instances and the whole job can be done and returned to customer for under AUD$600 if needed including parts.

If it needs a whole clutch then of course it's a bit more pricey, but the labour is the same, and I reckon a pressure plate will do at least 2 or 3 centre plate changes, maybe more. But it depends on a few things.

And also, of course, it's a good procedure to replace the triple input seals and maybe release bearing to ensure trouble free motoring.

Also, the SD2 readings are easily fudged, so they can be totally meaningless. the system can be told it has a new clutch at any time and will re-set, without actually needing one to be fitted.

 

I think that when you're stationary in 1st with the brake applied, the clutch disengages. If you do this on a hill, you'll roll backwards...

-R

 

I know this is an old post, but here's my 2 cents anyway.

Yes the clutch is disengaged, but the car isn't actually in neutral. The F1 system is doing the equivalent of depressing the clutch pedal in this situation, which means more work for the F1 hydraulic system. If the car is in neutral, the F1 system is not applying pressure to the pressure plate in order to keep the clutch disengaged.

I mention this ONLY because recently I had an issue in some very bad stop and go traffic where I was leaving the car in 1st. Eventually the car started flashing the F1 indicator at me and dropping to neutral on its own. Now I'm not 100% of the cause, yet; but putting the car into neutral myself alleviated my problem that day of the car unexpectedly dropping to neutral on its own.

It's almost as if the F1 pump was having to re pressurize more often. This could make sense considering that leaving it in 1st and doing nothing more than 1st gear starts for about 35 minutes requires the F1 system to apply pressure continuously. I think it just got tired.

--Nick

 

Yes, stop and go is no question a pain in the F1. You need to leave a bigger gap in front so you can spend more time moving in 1st and not just crawling.

If you stop in 1 and take your foot off the brake without getting on the gas within a few seconds you'll get the warning buzzer. If you wait longer I'm pretty sure it will switch to N automatically.

 

24kish miles. Stop and go traffic, highway driving, drag racing, road racing, auto-x'ing, drifting, and pretty much anything else you can do with a car. Clutch is still good.

 

Based on very careful measurement on mine when I did the 30 at 22,000, and replaced it just because, I projected wear to about 60,000 minimum.

 

Yes, in 1st gear and foot off the brake or gas and in 10 sec. a warning will sound/beep and switch to N automatically.

...and with 6000 miles, SD2 indicated with less than 23% worn on original clutch.

 

Interesting, I owned a 355F1 that was doing this exact thing, it would drop into N by its self and flash the dash gear indicator, say if i was in 3rd the 3 would flash. Is this what you are experiencing?

I wonder if it was an overheating thing in your case?

 

For the record, the "racing start" (ie stomping the gas to the floor) results in 6000 rpm with clutch dump. This does not result in any significant clutch wear. It does transmit a significant load through the transmision, but if the wheels break loose quickly (which they should) then the result is primarily tire wear.

It also does not provide the best fuel consumption

I have not had the balls to try it. But I sure want to!

 

Not exactly. My gear indicator wasn't flashing, but the F1/transmission indicator instead (bottom, left-most indicator on the instrument panel). Every tech that I've spoken with swears it shouldn't have been an overheating issue. I took it all with a grain of salt, however. The pump is motorized and electrical. The perfect combination for poor performance if the motor becomes heat-soaked. From what I understand, the system has to periodically re pressurize. I suspect that, leaving my car in 1st during the 35 minutes of stop and go in 98+ degree weather, called for frequent pressurization. IF the motor on the F1 power unit was overheated, then perhaps it wasn't pressurizing adequately... I still don't know. I've not had the problem all this week even though I have been out and about quite a quite a bit.

I head back home on Saturday, but I doubt this issue will rise again. The leg home is a pretty easy shot and isn't typically traffic jammed like i-75 N through Atlanta, GA.

--Nick

 

Never knew that!! I don't have the balls to try it either-----------But would love too--Anyone wanna loan me there 355F1 for a few hours???

 

I did, and it's FUN! my Mopar loving neighbor was asking if I can smoke the tires so figured I'd try it...yup, it works! Only tried that twice, totally worth it

 

I'm trying this AS SOON as I get back home (definitely NOT before hand)!! If my tires don't break loose, or I don't launch really hard, I'll assume my clutch is worn excessively, which could be the reason I had the F1 indicator flashing at me last week. If I don't get the desired results, I'm headed for a clutch service!

I'll post my results on Saturday evening

--Nick

 

My F1 clutch is being replaced as we speak at 17K miles. I'm not sure what the life expectancy should be but this is the first clutch I've ever had wear out in this short of time frame. We looked at doing the Kevlar clutch but it doesn't sound like anyone has done it on an F1. The previous Kevlar clutches have all been 6 speeds and I didn't want to be the first to see if it would work or not. I have to admit that I'm kind of bummed that it only lasted this long. I thought it would last at least 30K miles.

 

I've always had bad experiences with kevlar discs. Maybe I'm the problem, but on other cars that I've tried them on, I could never get them broken in properly. Every last kevlar disc I've tried has just slipped and burned up immediately.

As far as the mileage on your F1 clutch, perhaps the shift/engage/disengage logic in this generation F1 control unit just isn't that great. I'm pretty sure that I could get better wear in a standard 6-speed f355 than in the F1.

--Nick

 

No question there's less wear in a standard 6-spd, but a properly driven F1 can give a good life. For example, no slow launches in 1st, get on the gas and go so the clutch engages faster. My wife says I'm driving too fast, I say it's only to preserve clutch material! And reverse eats clutches...how's the garage situation? Personally my driveway is flat, I park nose in and push it out to leave. So always park in situations where you can drive out foward, no reverse (just to help clutch life). Also a factor could be new clutch calibration; I did mine myself using the WSM technique with no SD2 connected. I'll post in a few years (hopefully) how long that lasted.